Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen once tried to organize a photo shoot with Mark Cuban to make his boss jealous.
Magazine mogul David Pecker finished testifying in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan on Friday with an anecdote about Cohen, who has been Trump’s liaison at Trump Tower since 2007.
The now disgraced and disbarred lawyer, who was expected to be one of the key witnesses against Trump at trial, told a former National Enquirer representative: He said he requested paparazzi be sent to meet with the “Shark Tank” star in the summer of 2016.
During cross-examination, Trump’s lawyer Emile Bove asked whether the photo shoot was intended to “pressure President Trump to give special treatment to Cohen.”
Pecker said he never said anything like that to Cohen, but he eventually acknowledged that such a photo would do that. However, no photos of Cohen and Dallas Mavericks owner Cuban have ever been made public.
Mr. Pecker has testified that he orchestrated the deal and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars buying up articles damaging Mr. Trump, and acknowledged on stage that he felt Mr. Cohen was prone to exaggeration. .
Cohen left the Trump Organization in 2018 after criticizing Trump and became one of the then-president’s biggest critics.
He was later sentenced to three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to lying to a U.S. Congressional committee.
Pecker claimed elsewhere in cross-examination that he was “honest to the best of my recollection.”
He also stuck to his story that he paid Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal to keep quiet, despite Bove’s attempts to poke holes in his testimony.
Meanwhile, Trump, 77, complained in court Friday that he was spending his wife Melania’s birthday during the trial.
Two further witnesses were called after Mr. Pecker.
Lorna Graff, a former aide to President Trump, testified that she had seen porn star Stormy Daniels at Trump Tower, and that she was being considered for an appearance on “Celebrity Apprentice,” which Trump hosted. He testified that what he had been doing was “chatting in the office.”
But as the court previously heard from Pecker, Daniels had a relationship with Trump after Cohen bought her story about her alleged one-night stand with Trump in 2007 for $130,000 to prevent publication. I had another deal.
Mr. Graf left the stand after 30 minutes, followed by Gary Faro, a banker who testified that he helped set up a shell company, Essential Consultants LLC, for Mr. Cohen.
The company was later used in a failed bid to conceal a $130,000 payment made by Mr. Cohen to Mr. Daniels.
President Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felonies, including falsifying business records, and could be sentenced to up to four years in prison.
Faro is scheduled to resume testifying when the trial resumes on Tuesday.
